Alex turns 1!

This past Monday we had a first birthday in the house! For my little pile of blond hair, a one Mr. Alexander Michael Nill. This year has gone by so much faster than Ashton's first year, that's for sure. Where to even begin! I stopped doing his monthly updates about 3 months ago and figured if something huge happened, like he started to walk, it would get its own post anyway. But we've more or less been holding steady for these winter months. Let's take a look at where age 1.0 finds us.

Basic stats:

(3/24 pedi visit)
Weight: 25 pounds 11 ounces (95th percentile)
Height: 30.75 inches (85th)
Head circumference: Jason couldn't remember but it was 75th percentile
Shots: None because we found out he had an ear infection!

Diapers: Size 5
Clothes: 18 months, 18-24 months is a little big
Hair: Blond and fluffy. It actually defied gravity until we got it cut this past weekend.
Eyes: Blue
Teeth: Uh, six. He has his trademark top two and bottom two, and then one each on the right side on the top and bottom. It's very odd, like the matching ones on the left side aren't in yet. See?

Meals: Three a day. His favorite foods are mac n cheese (the shell shape pasta, which he will eat warm out of the pot or cold as leftovers), blueberries, sweet potato fries and veggie sticks dipped in hummus. He also loves canteloupe, watermelon, puffs out his snack cup, and string cheese. He and Ashton are not my favorite dinner guests these days - if they had their way they'd have toast every night. So lately I just tell myself at least I'm offering different foods (like fish, meatloaf, carrots, etc.) and try to take deep breaths when it is immediately thrown on the floor. I'm hoping Alex will master pouches and a straw soon because then I can feed them both my sneaky veggie smoothies.

Milk: Ladies and gentlemen, one of the main things Alex got for his birthday was WEANED! From bottles of breastmilk, at least. My last day pumping at work was last Friday, and we have just finished with the transition to cow's milk in his bottles. He has not noticed, as far as I can tell. He was getting three 5 ounce cow's milk/breastmilk mixed bottles a day for a couple of weeks, gradually changing the ratios, and then Monday, his birthday, was his first day with bottles that were 100% cow's milk. No more pumping for me! I will continue to nurse him at bedtime for a little while but I know we're almost done. Crazy! I found out I was pregnant with him on July 6th, 2013 (Jason's 36th birthday - I gave him the positive test as a present haha), he was born on March 16, 2014, and here we are a year after that and he finally doesn't need me anymore. Growing him and then feeding him has lasted 21 months. That's like, a lot of months.

Sleep: The birthday gifts just keep on coming. He got this one a little early (last week) but it's a nice little regimen we like to call sleep training. He was still waking up several times a night, which meant I was trudging to his room to nurse him back to sleep, and it was finally taking its toll. With the advent of turning 1, I knew it had to stop. So a week before his birthday we started and Alex immediately served me up a big dish of shock. Not as big as the one Ashton gave me by potty training in five minutes, but a big one nonetheless. He woke up three times, barely cried, and went back to sleep. The next couple of nights he was up just once and again, back to sleep within minutes. I was bracing for all out wail sessions that woke the whole neighborhood and lasted for hours (like with Ashton). And it turned out to be a non-event! So now he sleeps through the night and takes his two naps a day and all is well.

Motor skills: We all thought he was going to start walking long before now. He has been pulling up and cruising everywhere for months. A handful of times he has stood up on his own and balanced there for awhile, and a handful of times of that handful of times, he has taken a step or two, but it's pretty infrequent. He crawls at warp speed and gets into just about everything - cabinets, cubbies, drawers, book shelves, all of it. We have to watch him all the time, it's annoying haha. Having two kids is officially hard, because Alex is not content to be in the carseat, stroller or carrier but also is not at the stage where he can do what Ashton is doing (push the dump truck around the block, jump on the trampoline, etc.) So frankly, he gets in pissy moods a lot because of his limitations. He does not point or shake his head but he loves to clap (especially to "If You're Happy and You Know It"), play hide and seek, and climb the stairs. Oh and "wave", which is basically opening and closing his hands, and usually backwards.

Favorite toys: Any number of the one million matchbox cars we have lying around, plus his Tolo Ball Run toy, plus his little hide and squeak eggs. We also have a little barn that has little plush animals in it that he loves to take out and put back in. He's very busy in general just bopping around and exploring - he and Ashton play together a lot in the play tent and crawling tunnel too.

Brotherly love: Alex and Ashton get along great. In the mornings, Ashton wakes up and goes downstairs for some toys (for whatever reason, he will not allow toys in his bedroom), and then comes back up, goes into Alex's room and they play together for awhile. Sometimes Ashton climbs in with him but often they just shove matchbox cars back and forth at each other through the crib slats.

Overall, Alex is a strong, independent little guy and doing great :)

Which brings us to...

Birthday celebration info: I feel really bad. I threw a very big party for Ashton when he turned one and Alex, well...sorry baby. Sunday night Uncle Berg and Uncle Karen (as Ashton calls them) came over to help us sing Happy Birthday and that was the extent. Ashton had helped me bake a cake that morning, which I was feeling guilty about because it was Funfetti out of a box, so I at least shaped it into a star to make it a bit more special. Complete footage of our Happy Birthday chorus can be found here, but this is our little party. The last one is a blurry picture but I think Alex is so funny that I just had to post it.

Then the next night, his actual birthday, he got to open some presents from grandparents and then it was time to give him our gifts. We got him the Leapfrog Musical Learn-Around Playground with the Tube Topper, Ball Shoot and Piano that also has Alphabet Buttons (not its real name).

This was being sold on one of my Facebook mom's groups for $10. However, it turned out to have been recalled due to children sticking their arms in the ball shoot and getting scratches, so she gave it to me for free. Isn't this what being a second child is all about? Second-hand toys they don't make anymore due to safety concerns? For the price of a Lysol wipe, this was Alex's birthday gift.

Seriously though, don't worry. Everyone that ever owned this toy (from reviews on Amazon) gave mostly positive reviews, and Alex totally loves it. In fact, so does Ashton. It's perfectly safe :) And it was free and not to mention good for the environment to be recycled to a good home. Unsurprisingly, Ashton jumped right in to help me wrap it and then help Alex unwrap it. He was so excited that there was a "birfday" and mentioned several times that his was in the summer.

Alex's next gift was also on the cheap side. All he wants to do, ever, is unroll the toilet paper roll or empty the wipes container. So I gave him a box of tissues and told him to go to town. He pulled every last one out, then started to put them back in, then pulled them all out again. He was so focused on this task that he did not even look up so I could take his picture. It was easily his favorite present.

The final addition to what was the most affordable first birthday ever: Alex wore Ashton's hand-me-down onesie.

Birthdays are not without speed bumps when you are 12 months old. It's a lot to take in.

So there you have it! My little sweetheart Alexander Michael is